NEW CS VERSION - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

What can I say? It's been a long time coming! Just today news from the VALVe office has emerged as our own Craig "Torbull" Levine has taken the trip down to supposedly "help develop" the new version of Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO). Is this VALVe reaching out to the community, recognizing the competitive community?

News first arrived about the new version on the ESEA.net Facebook Page, saying:

"Counter Strike: Global Operation... More info tomorrow!"

Jess Cliffe, one of the original creators of Counter-Strike, was seen posting on the SteamPowered forums, saying "Global Offensive."

Rumors:

Planned to be released Q1 2012 Focuses on 5v5 competition Press release within 24 hours from VALVe Plays on an updated source engine Individual & Team rankings New Guns added New Grenades Dust & Aztec major revamp Spamming still viable Ammo is free

We can only hope and wait in anticipation as more details are revealed and are made public. As always, keep it tuned to ESEANews.com and the ESEA.net Facebook Page for more info!

These are some of the features of css:go, some already mentioned, "Note that all of these features are from early alpha builds of the game and are subject to change or removal from the final release. See the sources list below for reference material used to compile this list.

Planned release in Q1 2012Matchmaking systemFocus on 5v5 competitive playBoth Defuse (de_) and Hostage (cs_) map types confirmed!eSports-orientedCompetitive and Casual modesRanked / ladder play for individuals and teamsDedicated serversGameplay has elements similar to both CS:S and CS 1.6Classic maps (with both minor and major modifications) include: Dust2, Dust, Aztec, Inferno, Nuke, TrainMolotov grenade: creates area of fire that slows players crossing through itDecoy grenade: emits fake weapon firing sounds to confuse enemies about your positionBullets penetrate some walls and objects like CS 1.6Many changes to weapons, as well as new weaponsClassic gameplay: no ironsightsBeta in September or October (Unconfirmed)"source, http://www.counterstrikego.com/

Don't know about the cost range, but there are no hats, so it won't be free

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When I first heard it had molotovs I honestly thought "oh no, this is going to be such shit", but I think it worked pretty well. There are no perks or unlocks.

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Ammo is free as in source, it was debated a couple of times through the day though, so it might not be how it's going to be in the final version, even though I personally think it won't have ammo-buying.

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There are also a couple of new nades, which are pretty cool. There are molotov grenades, which create a fire-blanket that slows players are little.

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All the maps have names you know, but most of them have been altered. Dust2 only has very minor changes from the source version, but the other maps have some pretty big changes (most importantly dust and aztec have been changed to try and make them more usable for 5on5 play)

While old guns are being tweaked and re-evaluated, a few new weapons were added, including a new heavy machine gun rifle, new pistols, and a new shotgun, but I think the biggest addition was with the equipment. They added molotov cocktails, an expensive $850 item, which can be used to slow down opponents and re-route opponents through AOE damage. Molotov cocktails could be used to slow down T rushes through the tunnels into B on Dust2 or by Ts to slow CTs on retakes. Molotovs are currently stackable and bounce (versus an instant break), which might need to be revisited. Decoy grenades are also a new item that can be thrown to emit gun sounds and give the illusion of there being a player. The decoy grenade currently produced an AK / Glock when thrown by Ts and M4 / USP when thrown by CTs. It was suggested by players that decoys should instead produce gun sounds of a weapon held by your team, which was a well received suggestion. While decoy grenades realistically won't fool any real player, I can see them potentially being used to make opponents hesitate for a quick second and at times provide the extra split second needed to secure better positioning.

Other changes include CS GO experimenting with automatically equipping a random member of the CT team with a defuse kit at the beginning of each round. Valve wanted to try and make the defuse kit a special item like the T’s bomb, but the group was quick to explain how in competitive game play multiple CTs buy kits each round so that at a minimum, there is one kit per bombsite.